Tunnels 03, Freefall

to one of the stone tablets, and back again. It was obvious where his priorities lay.
    "Busy, busy, busy," Drake said, opening a newspaper and reading it.

    * * * * *

    "I've done it," Dr. Burrows bellowed the next morning. Will had been catnapping on the floor as his father rushed over to him. He was clutching a sheaf of pages, which he shook in Will's face. "I've got my route -- now I just need to find the starting point."
    "My route?" Will asked. "You said my route."
    "I... of course, I meant our route," Dr. Burrows said shiftily. "Hey, Drake!" he called. "I want to see my wife now."
    Drake wandered in from the next room, rattling his car keys. "Let's go then," he said.
    As they stepped outside the house the morning sun was so fierce that Will and his father were forced to shield their eyes.
    "Takes a bit of getting used to again," Drake commented as he unlocked the car and they got in.
    "I've never got used to it," Will complained.
    Drake made a call on his mobile. "Fine," he said, as he rang off. He turned to Dr. Burrows who was sitting beside him in the front of the car. "She's over at Wilbraham's place."
    "She's what?" Dr. Burrows exploded. "You have to take me there! Right this moment!"
    "Sure, Doc," Drake replied, then took a pair of sunglasses from the glove compartment. "Put these on. Don't forget the police would be very interested if anyone clocked you. And if the police get you, then so do the White Necks." He adjusted the rear-view mirror so he could see Will in it. "And keep your head down in the back."

    * * * * *

    Even before the car had come to a stop outside the Victorian house, Dr. Burrows had leapt from it and was running up the front steps. He hammered on the door until a bemused Ben Wilbrahams opened it. Dr. Burrows barged him aside and went in.
    "Do you think this is such a good idea?" Will asked Drake from the back seat.
    "Apart from knocking your father out cold, I'm not sure what I could have done to stop him," Drake replied, scanning the street ahead.
    Less than a minute later, Dr. Burrows stormed out, Mrs. Burrows in hot pursuit.
    "It's Mum!" Will told Drake in an excited voice as he slid across the back seat to get a better view of her. "Wow -- the new streamlined Mum! She looks really different... she looks great!" Will could hear his mother's tirade through Drake's open window. "But she doesn't sound very happy."
    "Think you can just turn up, the skip off again? Where've you been all this time? Where are the children? ... Where are Will and Rebecca? What have you bloody done with them?" she was shouting furiously at Dr. Burrows, following him as he thundered back towards the car. Ben Wilbrahams came to the front door, but made no move to go after her.
    Will got out of the car. "Mum! Mum!" he yelled.
    Mrs. Burrows stopped on the spot, her mouth clamping shut. She looked stunned. Then she dashed over to Will and threw her arms around him.
    "Jesus Christ! I didn't believe him! You are here!" she cried.
    Will was completely taken aback by this extravagant display of affection as he squeezed him tight. The old Mrs. Burrows was remote and uninterested. Not only did his mother look like a completely different person, she was behaving like one, too.
    Dr. Burrows had already got back into the front seat as Drake leant out of his window to speak to Will and his mother.
    "We can't hang around here."
    "Who's this?" Mrs. Burrows demanded as she eyed Drake suspiciously. "Is this the man who kidnapped--?"
    "No, he saved my life, Mum," Will said, cutting her short.
    "Get in, both of you!" Drake snapped. "This is no place for family reunions."
    Drake drove them out of London and deep into the countryside. The bright sunlight flickered through the car windows making Will blink as he talked non-stop to his mother. Except for the occasional gasp, she listened intently without interrupting him. But she couldn't keep quiet when Will told her of Rebecca and the Styx's cruelty, and how it had been revealed at the Pore that, all along, there had been two Rebeccas.
    "My Rebecca... two of her... liars... murderers? No! How can that be?" she said in a strained voice as she flitted between disbelief and acceptance.
    Finally, when Will paused to take a drink of water, Mrs. Burrows let out a long breath, and glanced at her husband in the front seat, who was maintaining a stony silence, his arms crossed belligerently across his chest.
    "Unless you've all gone completely mad, and this far-fetched story is something